Tesla's fourth Gigafactory will be in Berlin, says Elon Musk
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Tuesday that the company's fourth Gigafactory will be built just outside Berlin, Germany.
The announcement comes as Tesla completes construction at the third Gigafactory outside Shanghai, China, and just days after New York State wrote down the value of the company's second Gigafactory, a rebuilt SolarCity facility in Buffalo, New York, with more than 800 million dollars. Tesla's first Gigafactory opened in 2016 (but is still under construction) outside of Reno, Nevada.
"Berlin is great," Musk said after receiving the Golden Steering Wheel award from the German auto publication Auto Bild . "I love Berlin."
Musk has spent the last few years peeing that Tesla should build a fourth Gigafactory in Europe, and Germany's grip on the automotive industry made it a likely landing site. He said he would build up to as many as 1[ads1]0 or 12 around the world.
In a recent revenue report, Tesla said that European Gigafactory would probably be operational by 2021. The company predicted it would be similar to the Shanghai plant as well, since it would produce Model 3 sedans and Model Y transitions.
The new factory outside Berlin is not Tesla's fourth overall; The company is currently collecting all its cars at a former Toyota plant in Fremont, California. It also operates a seat plant near the Fremont plant, and has built another facility in Lathrop, California.
Tesla's Gigafactory in Nevada is the focus of an investigative podcast released this week from USA Today that found the massive facility has strained local resources and brought a "host of complications to the region."
